Well...sorry to be so long getting on this post. As I noted in my last blog I wouldn't be posting for a few days, however a few turned into a few more for reasons I will explain....so let me do a quick summary by day of what we have been doing up until now.
Day 19 - We spent the day with our friends in Calgary and friends from Saskatchewan who travelled to spend time with us as well.
From the day we arrived there were a ton of stories told, shared and remembered. A lot of the stories were from Larry's good ole days as many of our friends in the west are from that time but there has been plenty more of them since I joined the gang. Rick and Linda, our Calgary hosts, visited us in NB and we stayed with them on our previous western trip.
Vic and Jan travelled from Saskatchewan to visit with us. I had met them once many years ago, but had the pleasure of really getting to know them this time around. We are now ALL life long friends for sure.
Day 20 - We left our Calgary hosts and friends to drop off our bikes for servicing, pick up a rental car and then pick up my parents for a mini vacation. They were in Calgary for a wedding and we had two days before they flew back home.
We said our good byes and headed around the loop only to find a crowd of people in the PJs cheering us on....they looked a lot like the folks we had just left on the other corner lol...cameras in hand, waving like mad, mostly because in our excitement of the cheerleaders we made a wrong turn. We got turned around again, another wave to the crazy crowd and off we went....many people have come to know if you are a friend of ours, most likely you are prone to doing fun, off the wall kind of things. These friends were no exception.
After we finally dropped off the bikes, we got our pick up from the rental company. The gent who picked us up was retired from CP rail, so of course I had to ask THE question. How long are the trains that travel across the prairies? As you know my fascination with how long these trains are has made it to the blog on a couple of occasions. He told me the longest train is usually 14,000 feet long with up to 200 cars....so to help you with the math...that works out to 4.2672 kilometres......
We had rented an SUV for us and my parents to do our 2 day road trip...when I got there someone had done a little switching around with vehicles and we had gotten upgraded to a Mustang...most times this would have been gladly accepted however it is difficult to get us older folks into a low vehicle with little to no trunk...I indicated that we required an SUV which was apparently no issue...so we ended up with a Mercedes Benz....still travelling in style!
We picked up Mom and Dad at the hotel...got a chance to see the groom and meet the bride and some of our East Coast friends as well. We finally got Mom and Dad loaded into the car and we headed out of the city for the mountains...with a quick stop to get something to eat before Larry made meals of all of us.
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| One man, 2 provinces |
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| Mom blocking AC |
After a quick lunch we headed through Banff National Park and caught the 93 which took us through Kootenay National Park. This was a first for me and my parents but for Larry it had been a long time since he had travelled through (he used to live out west many years ago). Dad wanted to get a photo of the continental divide. Unfortunately I think the one that he was looking for was in Revelstoke. Regardless we made the best of our stop here. The location of this divide also happens to be the boundary between Kootenay and Banff National Park as well as the provincial border of BC and Alberta.
We continued our journey through the mountains with one more stop at Numa Falls.....this was breathtaking. The rock has been smoothed by the glacier water, which itself is a beautiful color for anyone who has never visited these parks. Glacier water is a beautiful jade color.
The whole trip through the Kootenays were just beautiful. Mom and Dad both enjoyed seeing the changing mountain scape all the way through, as did we. It was great to experience all of this together. We made our way to Cranbrook for the night. At this point I had never been to Cranbrook...and it was not to be my last visit.
Day 21 - This was the last mini vacation day with Mom and Dad. Today, Larry had a special stop in mind. Franks' Slide. I have heard Larry talk about Franks' Slide and all of the stories surrounding it. I never could have imagined the size and scope of what this was and what happened here. Larry originally understood that the whole town had been buried by a rock slide when in fact it was the mining housing that was buried. 90 lives were lost in the middle of the night on April 29, 1903 when a whole peak of the mountain collapsed....110 million tonnes of limestone slid down Turtle Mountain. Mom and Dad really enjoyed this stop as did I. It was eye-opening for sure! Take a look at this photo. We are up on a hill at the Interpretive Center. The mountain peak which collapsed (you can see where it slid from) is on the other side of a river, railway tracks and the highway through Crowsnest Pass. The rocks that you see in the foreground are at the same level as the Interpretive Center which as I mentioned is at a higher elevation. On the far left of the photo is the highway which comes out through the slide on the other side....so many stories of resilience and heroism even during a time when communications and access were not easy or quick. If I remember correctly, they said the slide was anywhere from 1foot to 150 feet deep in places but that is spread over a very large area.
After leaving Franks' Slide we made a quick stop in Okotoks to visit the sister of the groom who also now lives here in the west. Then off to hotel to get Mom and Dad ready for their trip home. Larry and I took a run over to visit our Calgary friends again and pick up all of our bike stuff as we were meeting up with Bud, Brad and Jimmy in the morning to pick up our bikes after we dropped Mom and Dad off at the airport.
Day 22 - We got the parents all set up at the airport, got to see the whole East Coast family that were hosting the wedding (their parents were also flying home), back to the hotel to pick up our stuff, drop Larry and said stuff at the bike shop and then drop the rental.
By the time I got back, all the boys had arrived and Larry was bringing out my bike from the shop. We loaded all the stuff on the bikes and began the next part of our trip. Brad had just purchased a new to him BMW 1600 GTL from NS and had it shipped out before our trip. As he was still getting used to it, this afforded us many opportunities to tease him especially about leaving his blinkers on. Today I got to visit Cranbrook....again but only passing through.
Our stop for the night is in Nelson, which for us means a lot of great winding roads and a ferry! At the ferry I took of picture of me and my haram, my boys! Teddy also enjoyed the ferry ride!
Day 22 - A quick explore and breakfast in Nelson, and then a good-bye to Jimmy who is heading back to Calgary. Now it is just me and my three....Amigos, Muskateers?....I promised not to call them Stooges. We all head out for more fun roads and our final destination being Kelowna at the end of the day. The roads are twisty and with some nice sweeping turns just as they were the day before...our favourite kind of ride and one of the big reasons we love it out here. We made a stop in New Denver...Fire and Ice as I like to call it. There was still snow on one peak and a fire on the other. We stopped for a break before lunch down by a lake.
Lunch was a stop in Nakusp which is another beautiful area in BC. Very small town, lots of artisans and small shops. Also it was very hot. By the time we made it to just outside Vernon, I think we were all done for the day. We still had another 45 minutes ride after we gassed up, watered ourselves and took a break in the shade. My shoulder, from picking up a bunch of bags and carrying them up the stairs in our hotel in Nelson, was starting to bother me. Being tired and hot did not improve my situation and I honestly was glad to be at the end of our day...or at least almost to the end of our day. We headed out, navigating through highway 97 (not fun) at 5 pm traffic, through Kelowna and finally pulled up at P and B's house. I was thrilled to finally see Patti, tired, sweaty and sore as it was....and so that is kinda how this portion of it ends for now.
Day 23 - Day 29 - The day following our arrival, the gang all went to a Garage Concert. I opted to stay home as I was still very sore from the Physio assessment that morning. Needed some rest and I knew I would be too fidgety. Aside from the physio appointments on my shoulder, we got to do a hike to Angel Springs with Brian, Kiernan, Nya and Timmy. We didn't go all the way to the Springs but what a great canyon hike. Patti and I got a little shopping in after our mani/pedi yesterday and tonight we are going to see the Harpoonist and his band in Penticton. We became fans of the Harpoonist and the Axe Murder when they performed at the Fredericton Jazz and Blues Festival some years ago. We always looked for tickets or opportunities for other performances near home or where we travelled. This is their last year together and although we won't see them together, I am betting we will get an opportunity to enjoy a great night of music.
So that brings everything up to date. My shoulder is A-1 although still resting before any big bike runs. We are enjoying our time with Brad, Buddy and Pat. Brad is heading back to Calgary tomorrow and then we will be down to just us 4. We have a few side trips to plan before we fly back on August 4 to tend to some things at home, see some family, and celebrate some birthdays. We will be back to Kelowna in September for part 2 of Go Big or Go Home Tour. I won't bore you with the day to day stuff but will post any side trips we do between now and August 4....stay tuned!
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